Reminder: water your plants, buy locally

watering can with plants in garden

by Connie Oswald Stofko

Water your plants

When it comes to watering, pay special attention to anything that you have recently planted. Any plants in containers need extra attention, too.

Don’t use the weather forecast in deciding whether you should water. Just because the forecast predicts a 70 percent chance of rain, that doesn’t mean it will actually rain that day. Or it may rain somewhere in Western New York, but not in your yard. Or it may rain on your garden, but not enough to reach the roots of your plants.

To figure out whether you need to water your garden or a container, stick your finger down into the soil to see if there is enough water at the roots. If the soil feels moist, you don’t have to water.

Buy from local garden centers

There are so many reasons to shop at our local garden centers, but the biggest reason is that the staff is knowledgeable about plants. They know which plants are easy to take care of, which need sun and which like shade, and what insects and diseases might be causing you problems.

Big box stores generally don’t have staff with that kind of experience.

Many of the local garden centers are also nurseries, so you’ll get plants raised right here in Western New York.

Each local garden center is independently owned. Each carries its own stock and often have interesting plants that you can’t get in the big box stores.

If you’re looking for a particular plant, don’t call me. There’s such a wonderful variety throughout Western New York and garden centers change up their stock from year to year, there’s no way I can keep track of who has what.

The best thing to do is to look through our Gardening Directory. You can find contact information for many garden centers there.

And when you stop in, please tell them that you heard about them through Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com!

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